10 Times Doctor Who Appeared Where You'd Least Expect

5. In The Sarah Silverman Program (With Christopher Eccleston As The Doctor)

The Sarah Silverman Program Dr. Lazer Rage Christopher Eccleston
Paramount Media Networks

We've covered Doctor Who's many, many appearances in other TV shows before (check it out here in article or video form), but here's a rather bizarre and unexpected one we didn't get around to mentioning.

In a 2008 episode of the largely forgotten comedy show The Sarah Silverman Program, nerdy character Brian buys a DVD boxset of a sci-fi show called Dr. Lazer Rage, vowing to watch it a ridiculous amount of times in order to get the maximum value for his money.

Why is this noteworthy? Well, Dr. Lazer Rage is a clear homage to Doctor Who, with plenty of corridors, low-budget effects, and even Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston playing the title role, firing off his blaster and delivering overly-dramatic speeches.

The Sarah Silverman Program Christopher Eccleston Dr. Lazer Rage
Paramount Media Networks

What made this cameo so surprising was that it came not too long after Eccleston had exited Doctor Who under controversial circumstances. It's no secret that he wasn't too thrilled with his time on the show, so the fact that he'd reference his Doctor Who days in such a direct way was quite strange to see.

Given that Dr. Lazer Rage is a parody, perhaps he meant it as something of a middle finger? In behind-the-scenes material, he even quips "no CGI on this shoot", a thinly-veiled jab at Doctor Who's green screen-heavy production environment.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!